There will be plenty of "I lost the biggest striper of my life" coming up now that cownose rays have invaded the surf -- along with even more of baited rods being torn from sand spikes before disappearing into the surf. For meat fishermen, the appearance of rays is bad news -- but sportsmen learn to appreciate the rare opportunity to fight a really big fish from the beach. Though not classified as game fish, cownose rays certainly fill the bill in terms of fighting ability and endurance. To top it off, just like most game fish they'll hit lures. Most surfcasters may never get a chance to fight a 40-50-pound striper, but they'll get a taste of what it's like when a cownose hits. Lots of people have been seeing schools of rays in the surf, and there's even been some panic among swimmers who see the upturned wing tips and think they're shark fins. Yet, I'm on the beach almost every morning and still haven't seen that. I was just blind casting a 1/8-ounce Storm Searchbait jig in chartreuse in the Bay Head surf for fluke Tuesday morning when it suddenly stopped and then headed east. After having caught many rays over the years, I knew what I had immediately.   The wing tips soon appeared on the surface to clear up any doubt, but once I stopped that first run offshore, I knew it was just a question of time by maintaining plenty of drag and walking up the beach to stay in line with the ray. Braided line has made it possible to fight big fish with light tackle, as I had plenty of 20-pound on the relatively small Canyon 3500 on a 7-foot Bogey custom spinning rod.  The tough part of the fight involves getting the ray ashore, as they panic in shallow water. If there's enough swell, the best bet is get the ray as close as possible and wait for a bigger swell to clamp down and pull the ray so the wave will dump it on the beach. I estimated that one at about 40 pounds.  While trying for fluke again Thursday morning in Spring Lake with the Searchbait jig, I once again did nothing until a ray hit. That one was unusual in that it hardly ran at all as I walked along the beach and used maximum pressure to keep it just beyond the breakers. I assumed it was a smaller ray, but when I got the right wave to carry it in it turned out to be more like 50 pounds. Fortunately, there were beachgoers watching that held the rod while I unsuccessfully tried to remove the jig in the wash -- avoiding a hook from a broken-off bait rig that was also in its lip. When my 30-pound leader snapped as a wave rushed down the slope, the swivel hit my left thumbnail like a bullet -- and it's still throbbing. Getting rays back in the water is often harder than the fight due to their weight and lack of a "handle". A finger under each eye socket permits some movement by working with the waves to get it over the edge. The $40,000 Point Pleasant Elks Tournament will be contested Saturday, after the Friday 7 p.m. captains meeting in the Point Pleasant Elks Lodge at 820 Arnold Ave. in Point Pleasant Beach. Entry fees are $195 for boats with up to four anglers, and $65 per kayak. Call 732 899-7638 for information. The big game tournament season gets started this week with the Beach Haven Marlin & Tuna Club White Marlin Invitational from July 25-29. The captains meeting is at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the clubhouse. Boats can sail from any N.J. inlet, ind the longer contest allows for fishing two of the four days. Weigh-ins are at the club, or Hoffman's Marina in Brielle. For information call David Ridley at 908 963-5924 or visit www.thewmit.com Capt. Paul Regula, of the Bounty Hunter in Point Pleasant passed along the sad news news that his father, Tony, passed away from lung failure recently in Sarasota, Fl. at 82. The family was from Newark, where Tony was a commercial printer, but he instilled a love of fishing in his son as they frequently fished on the Miss Belmar and other boats along the Shore. In contrast to the usual situation, it was Paul who became a charter captain while his father was the mate. It was only a few years ago that I watched Tony pulling two heavy anchors from the bow of the Bounty Hunter as if that was nothing for a man of his age. A fine angler himself, he pushed the customers to also excel. Paul noted that he was sometimes a bit abusive -- but always entertaining. A potential world record may have been filleted. Zachary Pilagnoli of the Bronx was fishing aboard the Bingo from Atlantic Highlands as the charter loaded up on porgies, but he came up with one so much larger that he brought it to Fisherman's Den North in Highlands for a weigh-in of 5 pounds, 4 ounces. When I received an e-mail from Bob Matthews at Fisherman's Den in Belmar Marina, I at first questioned if the identification was correct because that was bigger than our porgy is supposed to grow -- and a possible IGFA world record for scup, the official common name for the species.. The problem was that they had checked the state record, which is a huge 5 pound, 14 ounce porgy caught by Victor Bone in 1976 from Delaware Bay. Yet, the IGFA didn't keep records for scup at that time, and only opened up records for any species over a pound in weight a few decades ago. The scup world record is currently just 4 pounds, 9 ounces from Nantucket Sound in 1992. The photo I saw of the Bingo porgy sure looks like one, but by the time I found out about this it had been brought back to the boat for filleting. Matthews said fluking has been very good in Shark River, with lots of keepers being caught from his rental boats. The river is loaded with peanut bunkers, and they make an ideal bait for larger fluke. Capt. Chris Di Stefano of Wall has taken advantage of that fluking, but was more exited about the 6 1/2-pound fluke caught on a live snapper by Nick Teresky (9) of Hamilton while fishing in the river with his father, Nick, on Flukin Grovin. here were also some better fluke reports to the north. Capt. Ron Santee has been fishing "sticky" bottom with his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands, and on Tuesday watched an angler on his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands catch one pool winner after another as "Capt. Chaos" boated fluke of 7 5/8, 8 7/16, and 9 9/16 pounds There was some great bluefishing in Raritan Bay up through Saturday, when I ended up there with Bob Correll of Bay Head on his Boston Whaler -- along with the entire bluefish fleet from Belmar to Brooklyn. The party boats were packed, and everyone was catching choppers from about 5 to 15 pounds. Yet, with no change in weather conditions, there were hardly any blues caught the next day or since. The Golden Eagle from Belmar couldn't find any blues to the east on Thursday, bbut ended up with limits of sea bass for all plus some ling and fluke. Thy noted that they were surrounded by cownose rays on Wednesday. For updated reports, visit my daily blog at nj.com/shore/blogs/fishing. Jim Hutchinson Sr reports for the Beach Haven Charter Boat Association as follows:  While the inshore fishing action in the Beach Haven area is continuing on a steady pace, the offshore action for the captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association is not only strong but continually improving. Captain Dan Skrzat had a crew of eager anglers out on the "Mighty Quinn" fishing right around the 30-line. They boated five bluefin tuna, keeping only the two largest ones. They also caught a 20-pound mahi and pulled the hook on a very large yellowfin tuna right at the boat. Captain Dan says he wishes the yellowfin bite was like this every year. Captain Ray Lopez has been finding his share of big game fish on the "Miss Liane." Last Saturday he had an offshore trip which had a knockdown from a tuna but could not land the fish. His party did manage to return with two very nice mahi. On Monday, Captain Ray tried an inshore trolling trip. Even before they could get all of the lines out they had mahi on. Throughout the trip a pair of 150-pound sharks were caught, bonito, Spanish mackerel, bluefish, and mahi. At one point, all seven lines were hooked up at once. Over the weekend the "Hot Tuna" and Captain Bob Gerkens fished the War at the Shore Tournament on behalf of its club the Beach Haven Marlin and Tuna Club. Captain Bob put in a very good showing to lead the club results. The event was a five-way club event in honor of Parker Nork, a junior angler who passed away last winter. To honor Parker, 20% of the total Calcutta entries was donated in Parker's name to a charity for Childhood Leukemia Research. Captain Bob fished the last day of the 4-day event and despite a slow pick, boated a pair of 50-pound plus yellowfin tuna and an 11-pound Mahi. The tuna won the port Calcutta and overall second place tuna and first place mahi. Additional information on the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association can be found at www.BHCFA.net